Undertow

Undertow

By Nalani

 “” “” “” “” 

Start

“” “” “” “” 

 It’s the smell of her that knocks Eceri’s back. It makes his skin quiver. Makes his fingers tingle. But it makes his mind stop. And that is an issue. The exceedingly loud beat of her heart is still on his ears, and he doesn’t care how long he has been on her knees in front of her listing. His massive head cradled in her bosom, he can’t think of a happier place to be. But this isn’t right. The weight in his stomach starts to drop as the situation dawns on him. His eyes snap open and he moves his head away from her, causing a tiny breath of fear from Kates lips. She lets his head go as her fingers begin to shake, the realization hitting her just as hard. Taking small steps back, she watches his every movement, his shifting eyes and shaking head. When he gets to his feet, he can’t bring himself to look at her, but that’s fine with her. Embarrassment stains her cheeks with red and she covers her bare breasts with her arms, biting her lips nervously. The large showering room they stand in is too damned small, and it feels like the walls are coming in on her. But the list that begins to form in Eceris head seems never ending, so many things need to be done, and done soon. 

Before touching a piece of his armor, he grabs soap from an alcove in the shower and washes his hands thoroughly. The smell of Kate, as glorious as it is, can’t be smelt by the others or his plans will go very wrong very fast. Without looking at her still, he puts on his belt and cloth slowly. He knows she’s standing there still as stone, but that’s okay. He never thought this possible, but it happened. But it doesn’t need to be acknowledged just yet. He starts out of the shower room, pointing to a small stand with large drying cloths. 

“Dry off with that, be sure to clean every part of you again, please.” Kate silently nods, knowing what he means. “This can’t be mentioned out of this door.” 

“I know.” She whispers, she wishes she had a little strength to her. Something to make her voice sound like a real woman, not a child in trouble. Fuck it. Can’t make this situation more awkward. 

Eceri leaves out the door and takes a deep breath as it closes behind him. He puts his hands over his eyes and inwardly swears to himself, his stupidity is astounding. Yes, he did crave her. He always knew that. The smell of her was so enchanting and fresh and clean and so new. He has never held anything like her. Yautja females are hard, like him. They aren’t like Kate. They don’t smell like her. Taste like her. Feel like her. Growling loudly at himself, he has to stop himself from punching the wall in front of him. He really screwed up. Because now that he’s had a taste of her, even a little one, he wants more. And just because of that thought, Eceri decides to send Kate on her way and off the ship tonight. 

Kates body was dry and for her own reasons, she takes the large towel with her as she walks behind Eceri to her holding room. It was a comfort to see her pillow and blanket neatly folded, the table and chairs put against a wall. He didn’t need to say anything, she just walks past him and sits on a chair. For a moment she expects him to come in so they can talk, but he just closes to door and leaves her alone. And this time, he locks the door.

Nearly running to his room, Eceri has little time to arrange for her ship to be placed in a position that’ll look like a slight drift set it off course from the planet, and to make sure there is no evidence of them being on it. Once in his room, he stops and just breathes deeply, his heart still beating too fast. He doesn’t know why he did what he did, he just knows that they both liked it. And that is a problem. Using the COM, he calls his right hand Tog and arranges the jettisoning of the Oomans ship, the restrictions to the bay where her little pod is kept and the floors it’ll take for him to get Kate to it. He cannot have any Yautja seeing her. There is too big of a risk they smell what he has smelt. In order to get Kate to believe that what he is doing is truly bad, he puts on his full Awu’asa, even his mask. With time is a factor, everything has to be in its proper place or nothing will go right. So when he gets the confirmation that her ship is out and the crew is feeding, he has to run to gather her suit, even though it is made from Yautja technology, and run back to Kates room. But just before entering, he puts on his cloak. 

When the door opens, she is sound asleep. It’s only when the door shuts that Kate sits up and gasps at the sight of the waving, odd cloak lines. She backs up to the corner, her arms flailing to get the towel back to covering her body as it steps closer. The crackling sound makes her ears hurt, but the mask of Eceri makes her stop. He quietly and quite frankly rather rudely tosses her under-suit in her face, gaining a rather garish swear.

“Put it on, fast. We don’t have a lot of time.” He tells her quietly. But she is just confused.

“What are you doing?” Her hands grab at her under suit, turning it until she can slip in feet first. She stands up and starts to lift it over her hips and stomach, but she stops when she hears the slightest growl. Time stands still as she looks at Eceri, his rather plain slopped mask staring coldly at her. Inside he has to recognize that urge to grab her, that need to hold her as he did. But he shouldn’t. He looks away, no matter how much he didn’t want to. Kate finishes with her suit, placing on her own mask so she can hide her face, so that even for a moment she can pretend she’s not there. “What is going on?” She asks again.

“I’m getting you out of here, Kate. You can’t be here anymore.” He never looks at her. He can’t or else he won’t be able to let her go. They make their way out of her holding room and Kate never looks back. She follows behind him with more than enough room between them, being as quiet on her feet as possible. They turn too many hallways and go through too many doors for Kate to remember, but she doesn’t need to.

“Where am I going?” She asks when they get to a large set of doors, he stops and turns to face her suddenly.

“I am taking you to your jumper, I don’t know where it can take you from here, but we haven’t moved too far from the planet where we took you from it. You just can’t be here anymore. That is all I can do.” He opens the last set of doors and together they walk into a massive docking bay, the sight causing Kate to stop dead in her tracks. It would have fit ten of her ships, hell maybe even twenty. On one side, the bay doors are open with a wall of glimmering light keeping the cold of space out, that little invention still unknown to humans. On the other side, however, is her little jumper with its doors open and waiting for her. It’s still as dirty as she remembers. She has to run a little to catch up to Eceri, he never stopped walking away from her. As they get to her ship, they both stop and the awkwardness is palpable. She turns to him and opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. He looks down to her and is so thankful that his mask is hiding his face. She would see the sadness in his eyes of having to do this in such a manner. But she is a means to an end. But she isn’t gone yet.

Eceri reaches up and cups her face gently, and starts purring softly as she pushes into his hand and places her own hand over his.

“Wait, Eceri please stop.” She grabs his hand just as he turns away, needing more from him. She just wants to hear his voice one more time. But as he twists back around, he roughly grabs her by the shoulders and lifts her up, tossing her into her own ship. She rolls violently until she hits the far wall, the pain is blinding. Something in her chest hurts to the point that she cannot breathe, she would have screamed out if she could have.

“Run Kate, you have to go. Now.” He takes one giant stride to be at the door to her jumper, reaches in and presses the button to close the doors. They were slow, achingly slow. They stare at each other until they close and when they finally lock, Kate merely lets her head fall to the floor. She didn’t know she even wanted to cry, but the tears start on their own. The smell and taste of them was unwelcome. She shouldn’t be crying. She is free. Eceri got her out. She has escaped. And that thought alone makes her move. A stabbing pain in her chest causes a slight scream as she makes it to the cockpit, sitting in the chair rougher than she should have. She has to take a few breaths before starting the engine, the lights and sounds comforting. When the rumbles and shakes stop, she knows she is finally warmed up and her ship is hovering. A sudden cough brings up blood, but she doesn’t care just yet. The glimmering wall in-between the docking bay and space starts to scatter until there is nothing. And taking the hint, she boosts and flies out.

“” “” “” “”

“Where is she?” Eceri nearly jumps up behind Tog, wanting an update to Kates course.

“She is just about to get to the other side of the planet, I think she just wants to hide.” Tog tells him, wondering for just a minute why his friend is in a fuss.

“The Ooman is waiting for a signal from me that everything is safe. Send an uncloaked ship out and have it move away, then cloak again to come back. She has to see we’ve left.” The electricity in the air for this plan to work was amazing. Everyone wants to find the Oomans who are wronging the Yautja. And this is a great step towards that. So after a large uncloaked jumper moves off the ship and starts to leave the system, Eceri waits for Kate to start moving. He is a patient Arbitrator, but the hours it takes for Kate to leave the dark side of the planet and get back to her larger ship was unbearable.

“” “” “” “”

The pain is beginning to make her vision blur. If Kate could have, she would have stayed in her hiding spot longer. But she had to get back to her own ship to see the damage to her ribs, she knows something is broken but doesn’t know how bad. When her scans of the system beep with the alert of a ship, her mind starts reeling. It has to be Eceri, just to tell her he is leaving. He couldn’t expect her to just head towards Padua, she’s not stupid. But he wants her safe, right? Or else he wouldn’t have let her go. When she starts coughing up blood she admits defeat and scans for her own ship, finding it had drifted into the gravity of a planet nearby. Setting it to auto-doc, she sits at the back door of her jumper and waits for it to get into the bowels of her larger ship. When the doors open, she heads immediately for her sad excuse of a medical bay. Stripping her under-suit, she tosses it into a far corner for cleaning. She swears she can still smell him. Just looking at the right side of her chest, the dark spots are just starting to show the bruising to come. This is not good at all.

The small hand held scanner feels warm on her skin compared to the space chilled air. But as it shows not only a broken rib but extensive damage on her lung, Kate has to think fast. As she turns to head to her engine room she catches a glimpse of herself in a mirror, and it stops her cold. Her skin was too pale to be possible, the sunken cheeks have never been so heartbreakingly deep. Her hair, the short cut deep blonde, even looks dead. And the only thing to make her happy is that the blue color given to her, even mistakably, has become lighter. Maybe the color will go away, he said he’d never seen this happen, so how would he know. She touches her face where Eceri had and she smiles, closing her eyes. She didn’t even have the chance to say thank you. Swearing at herself as she runs into her engine room, she has to keep a level head. The small computer screen lights up and after checking on her fuel and energy available, which is not much as all, she has to pick which human outpost to go to for help. She won’t and can’t heal by herself. That’s not even remotely possible. But her options are few and far between. She won’t go to Padua, there are too many people there on the chance of the Yautja fallowing her. But she never told them anything. Those fuckers.

The closest human colony was a piss-wash cluster of ships but on one is the only doctor she trusts. She programs her computer to an auto-pilot there, with a message as to her predicament and her dire need for help. The only drawback is the long trip. Nearly taking twenty days with her limited power, all she can do is go into long term status on her ship, something she hates doing. The engines start to rattle up just as she gets to the lowest part of her ship, into a dark place she wishes she’d never had to see. The “hibernation” pods are for those long trips. The little pod was big enough just for her, and all the little tubes long enough just for her. Humans have yet to master traveling a long distance in space in a short amount of time, and having to be awake for twenty days with a broken rib or two is out of the question. She steps into the dark cove and starts to put the needle end of each tube into her major veins, the soft smell of blood awakening her senses. She pulls the pod door closed and with the convenient interface just in front, she queues it up to start pumping the sleeping agent into her body. The reaction in rather instant, her eyes feeling heavy. The gurgling sound startles her for just a second, it’s the cold of the water as it starts to fill her pod that makes her really scared. She grabs the mouth-cover and with a moment to spare, places it on proper and starts to breath calmly. She can do this. She has done it before. She’ll be okay. She misses Eceri.

“” “” “” “”

“Come on Kate, shake it off. Come on.” His voice is killing her ears. “Don’t go back out, come on I just got you.” The man laughs, and she knows who it is.

“Hey doc.” She smiles softly and looks up to her friend as he pets back her dirty hair. His small ship was home to many people trying to heal up. Doctor Jones was always in demand. Kate blinks hard and tries to focus on his eyes. “Where am I?” The question was stupid, but she just wants him to talk. And his smile on his fat, round face was too friendly. She needs that.

“You were hurt bad, two broken ribs and a punctured lung. All I know is what was in your message. You got here almost twenty days after you went into stasis and we healed you up.” Doc Jones helps her sit up, and the first thing Kate does is crack her neck. “Now, where were you is the question.”

“I was on Padua, then I went to a planet to scavenge and there were these animals.” She didn’t need to lie, but she may as well have. She doesn’t want them to know about her encounter with the Yautja. With Eceri.

“As much as I believe that,” His sarcasm is lost on her waking mind. “That doesn’t answer what the hell is all over your skin Kate.” As he talks, Doc Jones takes her hand and looks at the light blue marks closely, feeling the texture under his thumb. “We took a little sample of the colored skin, it is something extraordinary!” Kate pulls her hand back, not wanting to tell a story, to tell him of her pain that was the cause of her tainted skin. “Where ever you got those tattoos, they had high levels of radiation and its cause the cells of your skin to change. But not die. I’ve never seen it before. The cells, they reflect light and they change with you. When we started to repair your ribs, the light blue turned nearly navy. It might be the style of tattooing there but it might be dangerous for you. I can take it off if you like?”

“No, no, no. Please, thank you but no.” Kate smiles at him, may as well let him think what he thinks.

 “Well, you’re okay. You’re safe.”

She doesn’t need to be safe right now. She needs to get to Padua. The urgency was in her step the second she was off of Doc Jones’ table. With many thanks, and a hefty payment of course, she went to her ship and paid for the proper fueling and fixing for the trip to Padua. And with a full ship, she sets off back to the only place she really called home. It will take only a few days with the proper power now. She has to warn them, she can’t sit back and do nothing. The Yautja care coming no matter what. They are hunters, they will get what they want.

“” “” “” “”

Her tears started the second she saw half of Padua gone, her legs had given out when she got no response from her communications. She doesn’t want to believe it, she must be seeing things. She must be dreaming. In anger, she screams and pounds her hands on the floor of her ship, kicking at her chair violently until it nearly comes off.  Kate only stops when the pain is too much. Those fucking Yautja. Those goddamned ugly fat soulless mindless unforgiving pitiful beasts. She will get them back. With a quick scan of what is left of Padua, she can see that there is no power. No lights. No air. It’s dead. A lump of scrap. But she has to go on it. Maybe someone is alive. She can only hope. She has to hope.

It’s a strange thing when there is an explosion in space. It is more of an implosion really. An initial blast could cause fire and destruction, but the second a hole is made into space and all the air is taken, things become eerily quiet. Kate has only ever been on ship for one explosion in her life and thankfully she had her suit on. And as she gets it on now, hating with all her heart that it’s actually Yautja technology that allows this, she can’t help but think of the pain her friends on Padua felt before they died. There was no backup air generator, each ship had to have its own. But if everyone was connected when the blast hit, as Kate guesses they were, one moment the air was there and the next no one could breath. The death would take more than a few minutes. But maybe, just maybe someone has survived.

The small docking bay is still intact and with a little maneuvering, Kate gets her ship to hitch up. But when the connecting doors don’t open, she has to use a crowbar to inch it open, the blast of cold air making little goose-bumps pop all over her skin. And yet again, Yautja technology saves her skin, literally. Firstly, the magnetizing boots keep her down, but then the heat starts automatically, warming her to the bone. But she doesn’t go through just yet as a sudden realization freezes her. The Yautja could still be here. Eceri might be here. She doesn’t have enough protection. Turning back around and heading to her wall of weapons, mostly used to help her scavenging, she grabs two small hand pistols, tucking one to the back of her suit and carries the other one into the hallway connecting her ship and the remains of Padua. With the lights cut, she tunes her mask to night-vision, the strange green color not helping her fear. With small, light steps, Kate makes her way to where the fat guard used to sit and upon seeing a body laying back in the chair, a huge hole in his chest from some kind of gun, she nearly throws up. Even he didn’t deserve to die like that. The door was open behind him and her initial searching finds no other signs of humans, her hope that people got out jumping. Knowing the power to the ship is completely out, Kate takes the back stares up and around the ship. Her first place is to the shops, in hopes to find no trace of her friend Lain.

The absolute destruction of this level was astounding. What used to be haphazardly made lanes of shops has now turned into a heap of junk. Even if she looked through it all, she knows she wouldn’t be able to find anything meaningful. But it’s worth a try. As first she is careful getting to where she thinks Lains shop was, her stomach dropping every time she sees a human face, but the piles of crap get on her nerves that she stupidly just jumps over them, causing a few things to fall and make a racket. But once to her destination and once seeing a few things she knows her friend once sold, she stops and merely looks. Kate doesn’t know how long she stood there, and doesn’t care. Sometimes all you need to do is look to see what happened. But it is her ears that pick up something odd. A crackle of metal underfoot makes her turn around and get down onto a knee, pulling up her pistol with its red laser guide. Holding it with both hands while frantically looking from left to right probably wasn’t the best of ideas.

“Who’s there?” She asks loudly, hoping for a survivor. “Show yourself! I’m here to help.” A movement to her side startles her and she jumps way, pointing her pistol rightly. When the line of red reflects off something large, she knows exactly what is it. With only a second to think, Kate shoots a warning shot up high, only gaining a loud roar in response. When the bits and pieces of rubble start to crunch under its weight as it moves towards her, Kate quickly turns off her boots and jumps high into the air. The gravity generator was out and she hopes this gives her a little more time. “Eceri, is that you?” She asks, still pointing her gun to where she thinks the Yautja is.  The crackling sound of its cloak turning off stuns her, it must be him. But the Yautja that appears is nothing like Eceri. Smaller and slimmer, this little Yautja had little to no décor to its armor.

“And how is it that you know Eceri?” It asks, grumbling as it steps closer. It is then that Kate sees its shoulder cannon is aimed right at her and she grabs hold of the wall to keep from moving. She doesn’t want to make any sudden movements. “And how is it that I can understand you, and that you can understand me?” The sound of a charging cannon will never leave her ears, but the sound of it going off will forever haunt her dreams. Kate must have had a second to move, but that’s all she needed. Pushing off from the wall, Kate tumbles out of the way as the burst hits. The shock wave alone causes her to plow into the hard rubble of the old shops.

“ECERI!” Kate yells out loudly, he has to hear her. Please hear her.

The Yautja starts towards the sprawled body on the ground, the cannon charging again. But Kate twists around and aims her pistol at his knee.

“Stop now, or I will shoot!” She warns, getting a laugh back. So just as she hears the cannon finish up, expecting him to shoot without another thought, she shoots first. His knee blows out to the side and his shot flings upwards, hitting the roof and thankfully not her face. The Yautja falls to his remaining knee, swearing at her as he does. Promising to kill her. But Kate, activating her shoes once again so she keeps steady, merely keeps her gun pointed at his throat. “I warned you, boy.” She hisses at him. “Where is Eceri?”

“And what has happened here?” His voice is like honey to her ears, but still startles her to point her gun at him. Still cloaked, Eceri demands Kate point it else where, so back to the Yautja throat it goes.

“He shot at me first.” She says as she back up, way from the hurt one and away from Eceri.

“I did not. You shot first you lieing little Ooman.” The little Yautja is bleeding bad, blobs of green radiant blood floating in the air.

“I gave you a warning shot to stay away, you shot at me with the intent to kill you asshat.” Eceri laughs wholeheartedly, and finally drops his cloak. The sight of him makes something in Kate tighten, and yet calm.

“Put your gun away, Kate.” He says her name and she automatically does as he asks, putting her gun in its spot by her right leg. “This Ooman, you stupid little Young Blood, is my prisoner, you will be dealt with later. Get back to the ship.” And without even a wince of pain, the little Yautja gets up and walks away.

“Oh god no…” Kate gasps when she sees a familiar face. She runs as fast as she can through the pile to Lain, her body frozen from the cold of space. She pushes off the rubble that had fallen on her and cries out when she sees a piece had impaled her through the chest. Kate falls to knees beside her friend and doesn’t care to hold back her tears. She’s never cried so much in her life as she has in the past few days.

“Just pray she died before the second blast.” Eceri says, hoping to comfort her as much as words can.

“Go fuck yourself.” She spits back, getting a little chuckle. “How did you even know of Padua, this doesn’t make sense? Why did you do this?” She looks up to him, their blunt masks emotionlessly staring at each other.

“Because I had to.” He answer, while true, hurts like nothing ever could.

“You fucker.” In anger, Kate grabs the closest piece of metal and throws it at Eceri. But it harmlessly floats towards him slowly. “You fucker.” She says again, petting Lains hair back, her face serene in death. “She was the only family I had…” Her hands tighten around her friends clothing as she cries harder. “She wasn’t my blood, but she was my sister.”

“I know your agony.” Eceri says, taking slow steps towards her. His shock at finding her on this now debunked ship was more than surprising. He honestly should have expected her. To be true, he kind of did. At least in the first few days of letting her go. But nearly a full cycle past and with no sign of her, so he had given up the thought of seeing her again. Given up his hopes.

“You know nothing of what I feel Eceri!” Kate yells at him. In silence, she takes the small black scarf that was around Lains neck and drapes it over her face, knotting it behind her head. It is more symbolic than pragmatic, but she felt it was needed. “You can’t possibly, you fucking Yautja, do you even know what it’s like to care?”

At those hurtful words, something in Eceri snaps. She has no place to think such things of him. So in anger, unfortunately, he stalks towards her and grabs her roughly by the shoulder, turning her to face him. He pushes her to a close wall and nearly knocks the wind out of her. With a few swears, Kate weakly tries to get his hand off her shoulder, but stops when her hands touch his skin. The texture is what she remembers, rippled but smooth. His entire species is a giant oxymoron, isn’t it? Her fingers, nimble in there exploration, start at his wrist and go up. His forearm is massive, the muscle tightens as her hand goes over it. A band of leather starts just above his elbow, a small skull of an animal she has never seen rests to one side. She has to admit, the thickness of its bone would stop most impaling objects from hurting. If her arms were long enough, she would have felt up to his shoulder, his chest, his face. She would touch every part of him.

“Eceri,” She breaths out, licking her lips.

“You think me and my species emotionless?” He growls deeply, spiking fear in her belly. “Then let me show you this.” Without another word, he turns around and starts out of the large bay, towards a set of doors at the far end. And once again, Kate finds herself needing to run after him. Her questions of where they are going go unanswered, she shouldn’t expect such things. Around her, the green night vision starts to show her the real damage to Padua. A fire had started, no doubt, burning most of every level. But then a second blast had abruptly ended it. Sucking all the air and fire out. And after that the deadly silence would have killed everyone. The thing that starts churning her stomach are all the bits and piece of people scattered about. The blood on the walls, frozen from the cold, still have bubbles from when it came from peoples’ mouths. Kate hopes she doesn’t see anyone else she knows, but on the other hand she kind of wants to see Detective Chase, the little fucker who thought she killed her friends. And she kind of did.

“Look at them.” Kate hadn’t noticed where they were going, but upon seeing herself in a room she’d never been in before, she guessed it to be in the bowels of Padua. But the sight in the room makes her heart break. No matter what species you are, no matter who or what you ever cared for, something inside of you dies when you see a sentient being ripped apart. Its bones taken from its skin and examined. Its technology raped from them. At first glance, Kate sees only one body of a Yautja. But then she sees another, then another. She stops counting at eight dead bodies of Yautja.

“Oh god, I’m going to be sick.” Kates knees give out and as she puts her head between them, breathing deeply. Vomiting in ones mask is not a good idea. Around her, the crackles of many cloaks make her ears vibrate, and at least a dozen Yautja are standing in the room.

“These hunters were my brothers, taken and killed and dissected for what we know.” Eceri continues, walking slowly around the large room covered in bits and pieces of Yautja. “I can tell you who every one of these Yautja were, there history, they family line. I can even tell you that one of these poor souls was my grandson.”

“I’m so sorry.” Her words cause him to turn around, his anger causing his fingers to tingle.

“I now have the right to tell one of my sons of his loss, our loss to my family!” His roar scares Kate to her soul, it breaks her heart.

“I’m so sorry.” She says again.

“Stop saying that, you did not do this!” He yells at her, motioning with both hands at the massacre in the room.

“Didn’t I?” She retorts. “Humans did this, in our pathetic goal to become like you, to be as fast and smart. We fucked up. I’m sorry.” Around her, Kate can feel the numbers of Yautja get rowdy. A few of them must have known the dead, maybe even be related to them as well. “How did you find out this was here?” She may have asked it innocently, but it does not come off in such a way. Eceri practically jumps at her, grabbing her by the neck as he had so many days ago. But now he doesn’t squeeze her throat shut, but neither does Kate do anything to make him let go. Her limbs hang uselessly by her side, her feet swinging back in forth with the force of the magnets.

“You think us so stupid, Kate? I knew about your other, bigger ship. We were on it the entire time that you were in that little room with me.” Somewhere deep inside, Kate already knew. The Yautja are not stupid. And this proves to them that Oomans are. “We looked through your travel log, your communications logs. We found out about Padua. This was out next logical place to look for people poaching Yautja.”

“I didn’t know this was here.” She whispers.

“I know you didn’t. But you knew someone who did know. That Jenkins, he had more than a few spots full of Yautja goods. What I need now, are the things like your suit, I hope we didn’t destroy that part of the ship. We tried to keep the damage to it minimal, but the death rate was 100%.” Kates head drops in sadness, and so does Eceris heart, he shouldn’t have said such a thing.

“I know where Jenkins kept the things he sold.” She lifts her head back to stare at him, and then there was silence. The Yautja around them gather closer, wanting to hear where they could go look for more of their kin. But Eceri just stares at her, unbelieving.

“You would show me this, even with everything that I’ve done?” The question might have meant something if anyone she knew was still alive. But since there is no one else, it doesn’t matter who knows that she helped them. And she tells Eceri that. Who the fuck cares at this point. He sets her down but on wobbly legs, she needs to lean on a wall to not fall down. A beeping starts from inside of her mask, her suit doesn’t have much power left.

“I need to go to my ship, my suit can’t keep going for much longer.” She huffs.

“Seems you Oomans don’t really get our technology, you’ve merely copied the design.” A Yautja behind Eceri says in genuine shock.

“We are too stupid to get your suits. We studied, copied but never duplicated properly.” Kate offers, gaining a few laughs and a few scoffs.

“I will escort you to your ship, you are going nowhere alone. Tog, you keep up the search until we get back.” Tog nods and one by one each Yautja cloaks and disappears. Eceri crudely nods towards the door and Kate slowly turns around and heads out. Her steps are tentative, his are silent. She keeps her hand on the wall to keep steady almost all of the way back to her ship. When they are both inside, she has to close the door to allow the air to fill in the space, and once it’s done, she takes off her mask.

“I need to go to my room, I have the charge pack in there.” As she begins to point, Eceri walks past her.

“I know where it is.” He laughs at her, gesturing for her to come along. Walking up to her living quarters, her bed is calling her name but she can’t sleep. Firstly Eceri immediately sits down on it and secondly, she needs to throw up. She quickly attaches her mask to its charging base and runs into the bathroom to empty her gut.

“Have you never seen a dead body?” He asks, looking again at her little trinkets.

“Of course I have, but not like that. And not Yautja.” She gets out between heaves. “I’m so sorry Erceri, no one should have to bury a grandchild.” As she walks out into her room, wiping her mouth with a wet cloth, she can’t look at him.

“It’s actually not all that uncommon to Yautja, that’s why we make so many offspring, raises the chances of them surviving.”

“Well now that’s just as sad.” Kate sits down on her bed beside Eceri, and suddenly time stops. The silence between them is actually painful. Her lips keep opening, but she just awkwardly chews them.

“How long will it take for your mask to regain its power? We don’t have too much time here.” He finally asks, and she goes to check, finding it almost done. 

“I never really expected to see you again.” She stands a few feet away, uneasy on her feet in front of him.

“Neither did I really, but somehow I knew you’d find your way back here.” Eceri finally looks up to her and sees her eyes full of rage, he really hadn’t expected that.

“Do you have any idea how many families were here? How many innocent people?” Her thoughts go to her friend, but she keeps the tears back.

“Fourteen thousand, six hundred and ninety one Oomans were here. Now, just one. Just you.” Suddenly, Kate grabs the closest object to her and throws it in Eceris face. Unfortunately for her, it was merely a bag of clothes to be washed. So she grabs another random, useless object and throws that. And then another. But she never stops saying ‘fuck you’, over and over until she has nothing left. And he just took it sitting on the bed. And finally, with her own strength zapped, Kate falls down the wall to sit, taking deep breathes. She covers her eyes and tries not to cry anymore. But she fails.

“So many people.” She whispers.

“More Oomans and more beings of other species have died in the pursuit of Yautja technology. Our knowledge is not for you.” Eceri reaches up and unlatches his mask, the sounds startling her to look up. When his mask is set on her side table, he looks at her for the first time in weeks where they can both see each other’s eyes. “I missed you.” He didn’t know where the words came from, but they went out.

“I missed you too.” Kate bites her lip. Now what? She was just about to ask what their next step was to be when a beep from some gadget on Eceri takes his attention. The guttural almost feral sounds of him grumbling in what she has to assume is his sounds of aggravation was too amusing.                                                                       

“We have to go!” He stands up abruptly and gets her mask for her, but before giving it to her, he humbly gives her a hand to get her to her feet. Her slight words of thanks go on deaf ear. He was too awkward now to try to pay attention to anything other than his burning cheeks. “We just found a hidden signal of distress someone put out not too long ago, within an hour. Someone is still alive on this thing and they called for help.” He starts out of Kates ship as soon as they both have their masks on, and sets a rapid pace.

“It wouldn’t have reached anything yet, the closet Human outpost that has the capability to receive it is at least five days transmission time!” She yells up to him, but he only grunts in acknowledgment. “And even then, if they decide to come, it’s another nine days until they can get here. I know, I just came from there!”

“Then perhaps you should be going there, as soon as you show me where the Ooman kept his Yautja suits.” As they get closer and closer to Tog and his team, Kate stops dead.

“But I have things here I need to do.” At that, Eceri stops and turns to her, asking what she could possibly mean. “You must remember, I am a scavenger Eceri. This is what I do. I find scraps, I take what I can, when I can and live off it.” In silence, he takes one step at a time towards her, slowly as she keeps talking. “It won’t take me long, a day or two, I won’t sleep. The amount of ships still intact and attached, I can take one. The amount of inventory, stock and weapons,” Eceri growls at her, the thought of her taking Yautja based Ooman weapons makes him livid. “Okay, okay I won’t take any weapons. But let me do my job as you do yours. I won’t be in your way. I don’t want anything you do.”                                                                                                                                                                   

“I’ll think about it.” He grunts at her and turns back down the hall.

“” “” “” “”

“He had been reverse engineering the shoulder cannon, unsuccessfully, in this shop.” Tog says, the spot Kate had shown them has proven to be of great intelligence. “The suits could only include our netting system, even then it is flawed. But this Ooman is smart, if he had stayed alive, he would have gotten it someday. Maybe.” Tog tosses the Ooman model of a Yautja gun back on to the counter. “We’ve counted hundreds of thousands of separate pieces, all from Yautja.” The bustling room was full to capacity, Kate stuck in a corner so she couldn’t leave and everyone could keep an eye on her. She was still their prisoner, according to Eceri. Half of them she can’t see, not like she wants to. The ones in eyesight are enough entertainment. All the different kinds of them, light skinned, dark skinned, tall and taller, no two were the same. But she can spot Eceri in the crowd no problem, his head a little higher than most, figuratively and literally.

“There could be more,” She offers as Tog walks by, he just stares at her. Awkward.

“Where?” He finally asks, as if the small act of asking such a question has shaken his inner core.

“The only other place I can think of is at the police station, if they confiscated any pieces from dealers they were usually kept locked up.” At this point Eceri joins the conversation, and once the location of this place is told, they start making their way up. The way was blocked many times by rubble and dead bodies floating, but each time either Tog or Eceri would clear the way. But when they get to the hallway that leads to the police quarters, something is amiss. The debris was not right, it looked like it had been set in ways to keep people from going in, to keep everyone out. Instantly, the two Yautja cloak and with a whisper, tell Kate to remove everything as noisily as she can. A few times, she would need an invisible hand to pull a heavy metal bar that was wedged, but it doesn’t take more than ten minutes to clean the ‘blockade’. The door wasn’t sealed shut, it couldn’t have been. If power to Padua had gone out, there was nothing to power it to lock. So opening it was a breeze.

The police station inside had clearly seen better days, the welcome desk was in disarray of blood and body parts. The stench was unforgettable. If Kate could have covered her mouth to stop it from imprinting on her brain, she would have. She knew from experience that all the rooms and whatnot to the right were for interrogation and holding cells. And the one, giant room to the left was where they kept everything that was in line to be destroyed. The place where she bets more Yautja items are. But upon trying to get inside, the door is very evidently welded shut, from the inside.

“Someone has to be in there.” Kate whispers as she back away, hoping Eceri would catch the drift and open it. She has no way of doing such a thing. But suddenly there is a large hand on her stomach, gentle at first, and then it starts to push her back even farther. She knows in an instant it is Eceri. Without a thought, she places one of her hands on top of his, the feeling making something inside of her heat up. He pushes her back nearly to the now excavated hallway before his shoulder cannon goes off, blasting the door into pieces. The rush of air as the death vacuum of space takes it from the room was startling to say the least, well, at least to her. When the dust settles, the three of them walk in slowly, but stop at the sight of all the Yautja articles.

“Oh my god, the cops were in on it. They kept nearly everything here.” Kate goes to a close shelf and lifts up a Yautja mask, the weight of it astounding. “Chase must have been smuggling the take in the garbage, this is the only way out of this room except for the door. Fuck, this probably supplies other human colonies, there is so much here.” She looks down one of the rows and can see that there are at least a hundred rows of shelving, and she wouldn’t be surprised if every single one is full of Yautja things.

“You fucking little bitch!” A yell from down the shelves gets a little scream from Kate, she turns every which was before finally spotting someone dressed all in an all-black suit not unlike her own down a row. “How the fuck did you get my door open Kate?” She knows that voice. That fucker is alive.

“Detective Chase? You’re alive?” She calls out.

“Yeah, I am. But you’re not.” Without warning, he raises one of his gun and shoots, but her reactions are just a tad quicker. Using the Yautja mask, she shields her heart from the bullet and it deflects into the ceiling. And the roar of Eceri rattles the walls the second the situation dawns on them. Tog, quick to think, grabs Kate by the arm and pulls her away from the charging Yautja. But Chase starts down one of the hundreds of rows and alleyways of ‘evidence’, trying to shoot behind him as he goes. “You brought the fucking Yautja?” He yells as he runs. “You cunt, you brought them here!” Another shot goes off and this time it must have hit home as Eceri roars in pain.

“No, you did you stupid little shit. You did by poaching Yautja!” Kate yells out and gets out her own pistols. But Tog tells her to stay put, like fucking hell she will. She runs past him and ducks under a shelf to the other side. She needs to help Eceri. A shoulder cannon blast makes her jump, but she is quick to start running to it. She hopes that Chase is running away, maybe she can blindside him. Her feet and his feet are the only things making sounds, the Yautja never do.

“How can you betray your own species?” His voice was right behind her, but when she turns and points her pistol, he isn’t there.

“I betrayed my species? No, you did Chase. Do you have any idea the destruction you have caused by replicating and selling Yautja technology? How many humans you have killed?” A crash far off in the distance gets her back to running as well, and soon she knows she is on his tail.

“You got to do what you got to do to survive out here, Kate!” He yells. “Seems you’ve done a Yautja to survive.” He laughs as his own little joke. But his little laugh is his downfall.

Kate turns the corner just as he hits a dead-end, and once he turns and points his gun at her, everything goes in slow motion. The shot came from Kates gun first, the bullet is a thicker caliber than Chase has probably ever seen. The sound of it would have undoubtedly made them both deaf if it were not for their masks. When the shot rang out from his gun, Kates mind stops. In a split second, she has a millennia long conversation with herself. Should she allow the bullet to hit her, his aim at her head of course, and just die on Padua with her people? Or should she step aside and hope it doesn’t hit her so she can live another day in this shit hole called space. She must have gone back and forth more than a thousand times before she noticed the shimmering lines in from of her. In a blink of a second, Eceri steps in front of her and the bullet hits the skull on his forearm, harmlessly deflecting to the side. Her shot, however, was not mean for his head, but his shoulder. And when it hits, the scream was pitiful. Tog is swiftly by the Ooman males side to keep him from fleeing, he wants to question him for sure.

“That fucker deserves everything you have coming to him.” Kate tells Eceri, still standing behind him.

“Is that why you aimed for his shoulder?” He uncloaks as his friend does, just so the male can see the shit storm he is in. Kate just nods to the question.

“You are fucking unbelievable Kate! Working with the Yautja?” The gurgling insults from Chase go on deaf ear. That is, until he gets personal. “I always knew you were a flake, that’s why I never bothered to fuck you. I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle it, you’re not woman enough; you’re a traitor.” Just as Tog tries to shut him up, Chase adds the cherry to his insult sunday. “Your friend Lain, though, now she was a team player. Had her little pussy every night when you were gone.” Before Eceri can stop her, Kate runs around him and is suddenly on top of the male, punching him in the face repeatedly. Her fists are relentless, aiming first for his face, then his throat. She wants to kill him for saying such lies!

“Stop Kate, stop.” Eceri grabs her by the waist and pulls her back.

“Kate Esther, the Yautja fucker and friend of whores all the universe over.” Kate screams bloody murder and far be it for Eceri to stop a female in rage. He lets her go but keeps ahold of her hand, but it’s just enough length for her foot to connect to Chases’ balls. The sound makes something in both Tog and Eceri hurt, a male is a male in any species.

“Take him to the ship and into my interrogation rooms.” He instructs and soon Eceri and Kate are alone among the shelving units of the police station, Yautja items from who knows how many fallen males stacked ingloriously. “You really are stupid, you know that?” He asks in amazement, but she just laughs.

“I’ve known that my whole life. But thank you for saying it.” He turns to her as she says it, noticing how it didn’t really ring true.

“If you want to die, I can kill you if you like. It won’t be all that glorious for me, but if it is asked…” Again though, she laughs, holstering her gun. “You could have moved from the path, why didn’t you?” Slowly, Eceri starts walking towards her and to his dismay she starts backing away, but her eyes don’t leave his. “If I hadn’t stepped in its path, it would have hit your forehead dead center.” Kates’ back hits the wall, but still she doesn’t take her eyes off his mask. “Do you want to die?” He asks as he leans in, putting his hands on either side of her to really get into her face.

“No.” She mutters under her breath that is quickly starting to speed up. She takes a deep breath in and suddenly his scent is overwhelming. Her head falls back to the wall as her hands reach up and suddenly grab the sides of his neck. The heat of his skin radiates from her palms to her heart then into her stomach, and then deeper, lower. Eceri growls deep, her delicate fingers make his skin tingle. She groggily moves her head back and gasps at how close he is. He takes a step closer, until their bodies are barely touching. What is it that makes him want to be so near to her? “I’ve truly missed you. Everything about you.” Kate lets her words trail as one of her hands runs down his neck to a shoulder, then to the very hand that not too long ago had given her a pleasure she had never known.

“I hoped I’d see you again, I hoped you were alive.” With his strength, even if it took very little, Eceri picks her up until their faces are truly level, and pushes her body hard against the wall with his own. With their height difference, her legs wrap around his middle as her arms go round his neck. With a deep purr, Eceri puts his face into her neck and smells her again for the first time in too damned long. But with her scent, his hips start grinding forwards slowly. Her answering moan makes him quiver.